oldhammejjjj
Serf
Hi everyone! I've been wondering for a while, how do you sculpt a miniature from scratch? I don't have much experience in the field and I'd like to sculpt a giant like those "old school miniatures" but I don't know where to start.
oldhammer sculpting
- Thread starter oldhammejjjj
- Start date
ManicMan
Lord
Ah... now first thing is: I'm pretty sure you won't find two people who do it the same.
now. I believe I am NOWHERE NEAR good enough to be a expert or anything. But I keep trying and working on improvements. I've done some things I don't think are awful, but I also don't think they are really sellable quality.
If you want to sculpt a Giant, that's SOO much easier cause it's bigger. First, I would say look into basic human Anatomy. The more you know the better but you can get away with some basic stuff and some references.
Second, look into scale charts. partly because for the oldhammer (and much better looking) style, you don't want to look at real human proportions. If you make a head which is real life scale to the body, that's not gonna look great. You can find a number of charts which show you the head size (and hands etc) proportions but some of these do vary so look at some of your favourite miniatures and look at the sizing.
I've got a Marauder Giant sitting here which I really need to finish painting. Its about 11cm tall, and the head takes up about 2cm of that. The hands are kinda equal to that size. The overall figure is about 5.5 heads tall. Measuring the size based on heads is common for animation and character design, though in the real world, they often use roughly measurements of human hands for some reason.
Get a good idea of what you want to sculpt, I find it's good to sketch a basic design (or if you want to base it on a design already made, just take that design) and print a copy of that design at the right size you want it to be. This will REALLY help to try to get the sizing right as you can keep referring to it.
Now, once you got that stuff ready, you need to sort out am armature. This is basically a skeleton frame which you build on. There are a number of ways to do this.
Now.. and I hope I don't blow up some ego's here, I would recommend you watch this series of videos for an introduction to the armature making and sculpting:
While I always prefer written guides with photos, videos can also help in some cases.
There are other guides and stuff around too but I would only recommend someone I've kinda used the guide and seen the results in real life. and I would 100% say they are trustworthy ^_^
One person who does written guides which I have found.. half useful, is Patrick Keith at (patrickkeith.com). I would debate if it's oldschool style but it is one which has helped with some pointers.
for more complex information on the later stuff of the sculpting itself alot of good sculptors have done books on their methods.
Apart from this... Asking helps which you have done, so that's a good thing. But you aren't gonna learn overnight. Starting on something bigger and simple is good, then work on improving your skills from that stage.
There are some good sculptors of various degrees here. Some who do professional stuff, some which do amateur stuff. Hopefully some will be able to give a bit of advice to add to this.
now. I believe I am NOWHERE NEAR good enough to be a expert or anything. But I keep trying and working on improvements. I've done some things I don't think are awful, but I also don't think they are really sellable quality.
If you want to sculpt a Giant, that's SOO much easier cause it's bigger. First, I would say look into basic human Anatomy. The more you know the better but you can get away with some basic stuff and some references.
Second, look into scale charts. partly because for the oldhammer (and much better looking) style, you don't want to look at real human proportions. If you make a head which is real life scale to the body, that's not gonna look great. You can find a number of charts which show you the head size (and hands etc) proportions but some of these do vary so look at some of your favourite miniatures and look at the sizing.
I've got a Marauder Giant sitting here which I really need to finish painting. Its about 11cm tall, and the head takes up about 2cm of that. The hands are kinda equal to that size. The overall figure is about 5.5 heads tall. Measuring the size based on heads is common for animation and character design, though in the real world, they often use roughly measurements of human hands for some reason.
Get a good idea of what you want to sculpt, I find it's good to sketch a basic design (or if you want to base it on a design already made, just take that design) and print a copy of that design at the right size you want it to be. This will REALLY help to try to get the sizing right as you can keep referring to it.
Now, once you got that stuff ready, you need to sort out am armature. This is basically a skeleton frame which you build on. There are a number of ways to do this.
Now.. and I hope I don't blow up some ego's here, I would recommend you watch this series of videos for an introduction to the armature making and sculpting:
While I always prefer written guides with photos, videos can also help in some cases.
There are other guides and stuff around too but I would only recommend someone I've kinda used the guide and seen the results in real life. and I would 100% say they are trustworthy ^_^
One person who does written guides which I have found.. half useful, is Patrick Keith at (patrickkeith.com). I would debate if it's oldschool style but it is one which has helped with some pointers.
for more complex information on the later stuff of the sculpting itself alot of good sculptors have done books on their methods.
Apart from this... Asking helps which you have done, so that's a good thing. But you aren't gonna learn overnight. Starting on something bigger and simple is good, then work on improving your skills from that stage.
There are some good sculptors of various degrees here. Some who do professional stuff, some which do amateur stuff. Hopefully some will be able to give a bit of advice to add to this.
twisted moon
Moderator
there's also this: https://forum.oldhammer.org/threads/tutorial-list.30001/ when you get to the details.